By Natalia Breus: Recently, President Alexander Lukashenko has paid a working visit to Slutsk District. Among other things, the Belarusian President discussed the issue of the quality of local roads in the country.
The quality of major Belarusian roads of Belarus has already become the country’s brand. This primarily applies to major transit routes. The total length of motor highways in the country exceeds 86,000 kilometers.
The past decade has become a period of global renewal of the transport network in Belarus. At the moment, for example, the route Minsk – Mikashevichi is now under construction near Slutsk. In general, they are now modernizing roads, bridges and interchanges. However, the issue of local roads has long been overshadowed by such major construction projects. This spring, the President instructed the government to overhaul the local roads network.
The total length of such roads in Belarus is 70,000 kilometers. These roads connect 23,000 locations. Among them are nearly 200 cities, 1,500 agro-towns and over 20,000 villages. The majority of regional roads are asphalted. But a third of roads are gravel. Another 16% of roads are completely unpaved.
All in all, a third of the local roads network needs to be repaired, which is why by 2020, over 700 million BYN will be allocated for the modernization of the network. Within the next 4 years, 7,000 kilometers of roads are to be repaired. Most of these roads are in Minsk Region.
Alexander Lukashenko then got acquainted with modern technologies of repairing roads. The so-called cold recycling is now widely used in Europe, Russia, and the Baltic States. This method is fast and inexpensive. It is also less energy-intensive. Another new technology for Belarus is the installation of a road foundation made of earth reinforced with cement and additives. This method is suitable for gravel roads that do not have strong traffic.
It is clear that the country needs specail equipment for road construction, which is why it is crucial to engage the industry of the country to successfully implement the new developments. For example, the country’s enterprises, such as MAZ, MTZ and Amkodor, can easily produce analogues of different kinds of expensive imported equipment domestically.
All in all, the project to modernize the road network is an opportunity to consider some options of reasonable import substitution, as well as to step by step make every corner of the country a little bit better.
